Woo hoo!!! Did you see the new Schedule Send option Gmail added!! I’m so happy!! You can now schedule your emails to go out at a specific date/time. Working at 2 am? Schedule emails to go out at 8 am. Working on Saturday afternoon? Schedule emails to go out Monday morning. You need to have boundaries for your work day. If you CHOOSE to make an exception, don’t train your recipients to expect it. It’s better if they don’t know you’re working on Saturday. Then they won’t expect you to work on Saturday. Stay in charge of your life by using technology wisely.
Password Protection
Confession is good for the soul, they say. So here goes…
Last week I tried to log onto my 2 laptops and kept getting the “Invalid password” message. I type that password twice every morning. Pre-coffee! Of course, I knew what it was. I tried rebooting. I tried CAPS ON and caps off. Finally I called my IT support who was going to come with his reset software.
I finally quieted down enough to try the password on auto-pilot as I usually do. Oh… yeah… there are 2 more digits to it.
Later in the week, my sister wiped her iPhone because she got confused about her phone password. She never turns off the phone therefore she never uses that password.
I use a password protector software but I had left my Windows password out of it. My sister uses a password storage software but it doesn’t have online access, only phone access.
Confession over. Let’s talk about how you can prevent either of these scenarios happening to you.
You ABSOLUTELY can not use the same password for multiple accounts! This is a serious problem. Please! It’s worth the effort to make your data safer. A data breach at Dropbox was just to gather passwords, not for info in files. The hackers take the passwords, try them at banks, PayPal, Google, etc. to get access to your personal data.
Option 1 – I strongly recommend this!
Use LastPass.com to record and input passwords. LastPass will fill in the user name and password for you on website logins. You can see the list from your computer, your tablet, your phone. You can access it online. You can store other info like social security numbers, spouse’s auto license plate number. I will help you set it up if you need some assistance. Basic service is free. Premium is only $24 a year. Using LastPass on your tablet or phone does make it easier to access sites from those small screens. And if the phone is locked up, you can access the password list from your computer.
Option 2
Create a series you can remember but changes with each account. Should be at least 8 characters including a capital letter and a special character.
Example: Series is 125cHaracters34$% (3rd character is always capitalized)
Then for your Google account the password is 12goOgl34$%
for Southwest Airlines the password is 12soUth34$%
for Yelp the password is 12yeLp34$%
You can remember the series. Each password is different so that if a hacker gets the Google password they can’t access Yelp.
This is IMPORTANT! Call me if you have questions or need help getting set up.
Post update on 05/03/18.
Email Click Rate
This is the best article I’ve ever read explaining the Click Rate and why it is important. Please read this so you’ll have a better understanding of how your emails need to be laid out as well as how to measure your email results.
I want you to be a bit intimidated by this article. Why? Too many times we think of social media as making a post. And yes, make it on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn,… But there is more to social media than just making a post – IF – you want it to be a major part of your marketing campaign. There is a difference in having a “social presence” and really marketing via social media. This article is specifically about how to use Instagram but the concepts are the same for any social media. If you want impact, you have to customize to the specific platform. And you have to customize to the platform’s audience. So look at your marketing plan. Do you need a presence? Do you need real social activity? Then we can plan appropriately. Click here to read the article.
Email Marketing
As part of my “48 Hour Traffic Reports” after every email I send, I include a list of the Unsubscribes. I always tell clients, “Don’t take this personally! There are lots of reasons for someone to unsubscribe.” But it does hurt when someone declines to receive your well-written, beautifully designed emails. This article looks at some reasons for people unsubscribing and looks at what you can do to minimize the unsubscribes. Compare your emails to these examples!
Google Partners With WordPress
Google has started partnering with WordPress. This gives all of us WordPress site owners a little lift in Google juice. Read the Article.
Why?
- WordPress now represents 59% of all content management software websites. That’s an estimated 1/3 of ALL websites.
- Google is focused on speed! They have made upload speed a priority and an algorithm factor. WordPress sites are speed friendly. You do have to be careful about the size of photos, PDFs or other uploads to your site. But the basic WordPress structure is speed-friendly. (If you’re concerned about the upload time for your site, let’s take a look and see what we can do. We have tools to shrink photo sizes, delete comments, improve the site.)
- Google is prioritizing mobile-friendly sites because so many searches are now done from mobile devices. WordPress and WordPress themes are responsive aka mobile-friendly. (If you have an old WP site, let’s make sure it’s responsive. This is urgent!)
If you aren’t using a WordPress site, let’s talk about your options. Every site needs to take advantage of every opportunity to be Google-friendly.
Reviews
Speaking of client reviews – Make it easy for people to give you a review. Put icons/links to review sites on your Home Page. Put icons/links in your email template. Put them in your email signature. People want to give reviews. They just get distracted or busy. So asking once probably won’t work. Ask multiple times in multiple ways so it’s easy for them.
Read more about reviews here.
Customer Reviews
Customer reviews are becoming more important on social media platforms. It isn’t just Yelp for restaurants! I started my research for a new dentist at Yelp last weekend. More and more of my retail clients are telling me about business coming in after reading reviews on Facebook, Google or many of the other sites. You need to response to good reviews and to bad ones. Don’t be afraid of bad reviews. If you have 20 5 star reviews and 1 griping chippy, people are going to downplay the complainer. We all know people like that. But note in this article how few people respond to good reviews and how responding increases sales!! If you need help putting together your action plan, call Your Computer Lady.
Social Media
Altimeter Group does an annual social media study. This year the results to their question about the “Primary Business Objective” of social media was a surprise. The #1 objective was customer service. The #2 objective was Relationship Building. Increasing sales was way down at #5!! I have the complete report if you would like a copy.
7 Crucial Tips to Refine Your Mobile
Email Etiquette
“If you still include “Sent from my iPhone” at the bottom of your messages, it’s time you thought about the etiquette of sending a mobile email.
According to data collected in the most recent U.S. Consumer Device Preference Report, nearly 63% of emails were opened on a mobile device, while only about 37% were opened on a desktop computer. With more and more people opening and sending emails on their smartphones and tablets for both personal and professional communication, your mobile email manners are as relevant as ever.
Below, we’ve compiled seven tips to ensure your mobile emails leave the best possible impression.” Read the full article called 7 crucial tips to refine your mobile
email etiquette on Mashable.
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